peterkennedy Posted 30 June , 2010 Share Posted 30 June , 2010 Anyone planning on doing one of Leger's battlefield tours needs to bear the following in mind - The actual tour itself is very good but, if you have any problems, the customer services afterwards is extremely poor. The company appear to be quite happy to take your money - and there their interest ends. The so-called "customer relations officer" cannot even put a letter together without spelling mistakes. I have had two from him and they are both patronising and completely ignore the points raised. I would not recommend this company to anyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bernard_Lewis Posted 30 June , 2010 Share Posted 30 June , 2010 Hmm. Not used them though they are price competitive. I recall being on the Somme with Flanders Tours and while we tucked into a nice meal the Leger people at the same cafe had a baguette. You gets what you pays for... Bernard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
17107BM Posted 30 June , 2010 Share Posted 30 June , 2010 Anyone planning on doing one of Leger's battlefield tours needs to bear the following in mind - The actual tour itself is very good but, if you have any problems, the customer services afterwards is extremely poor. The company appear to be quite happy to take your money - and there their interest ends. The so-called "customer relations officer" cannot even put a letter together without spelling mistakes. I have had two from him and they are both patronising and completely ignore the points raised. I would not recommend this company to anyone. Peter. When i asked your advice on this tour in May of this year you were full of praise. Have i missed something? The tour i went on June 7th on was regarded by all to be faultless. The tour guide was exemplary, being a good communicator and polite and friendly. In short, Ian the tour guide was FANTASTIC. And all on the tour agreed! The two driver's John &co, well you could have not got better, very helpfull and nothing to much trouble. ALL Quiet on Western Front, for me and all on our tour was a great experience made all the better by the staff at Leger Holidays. Any transfers were done were done without fuss and we didn't need to move a bag! And i was not on silver service, but felt i was. I hope you resovle your problem, but can't imagine what it could be. Would i do it again.. YES! And plan to Gary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PBI Posted 1 July , 2010 Share Posted 1 July , 2010 Some interesting reviews about Leger on this Link http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/travel-agents/lege...lidays/reviews/ I personally have never used Leger Tours.When visiting France and Belgium i always "Go It Alone". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterkennedy Posted 1 July , 2010 Author Share Posted 1 July , 2010 Gary No problem at all with the trip or the guide and/or the drivers. The trip was, indeed, fantastic. The problem is with the office staff dealing with an inquiry about incorrect details on the return journey and the incompetence of the drivers on the feeder coach in England. When the person you want to complain about is the same person who replies to your letter, and the managing director is not interested in any business he has lost, it does not show a high degree of customer service, does it? Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel Marshall Posted 1 July , 2010 Share Posted 1 July , 2010 It seems things have changed. A number of years ago, a work colleague and I planned to take his quite elderly and ill neighbour on a Somme/Ypres Leger Tour. Shortly before the tour, a couple of weeks at the most, the old man died. I called Leger to let them know and find out what more I needed to do. I was told there was nothing more for me to do other than confirm that my friend and I were still planning to travel, which we were. Before the end of the week a cheque arrived through my door with a full refund of the dead man's share of the cost of the tour. I couldn't fault them for their customer service then. Cheers, Nigel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bernard_Lewis Posted 1 July , 2010 Share Posted 1 July , 2010 Overall I think I'll use them at some time. Bernard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiegeGunner Posted 1 July , 2010 Share Posted 1 July , 2010 ... while we tucked into a nice meal the Leger people at the same cafe had a baguette. Simple explanation, Bernard - Léger means 'light' in French. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveMarsdin Posted 1 July , 2010 Share Posted 1 July , 2010 And following on from Mick.....they could have been having a themed meal with a military link: a "mitraillette" (or sub-machine gun) is a glorified and elongated chip butty, frites in a baguette. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pooter Posted 1 July , 2010 Share Posted 1 July , 2010 I'd use Leger again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muerrisch Posted 1 July , 2010 Share Posted 1 July , 2010 Interesting! A few years ago my wife, sister in law and brother in law did the Leger trip to Weimar via Brussels. Both the trip and the drivers and the service were truly appalling, and I wrote a reasoned letter to Head Office giving objective feedback. This included: being forbidden to use the coach toilet for other than a pee, despite many legs of journey excessively long. driver driving towards Paris, well towards Paris, before he was pursuaded that Weimar was well to the East. No air con on coach despite advert Breakfast in Brussels was 'continental-lite' to the extreme. In Weimar the hotel treated the party like lepers. On return, driver hit a taxi on a Brussels roundabout. Driver busy talking to co-driver at time. Driver arrested for drug smuggling at Dover, resulting in a 3 hour delay whilst everyone on coach, and their baggage, and the coach, was searched. Head office explained carefully that it was, if only I could see reason, all either my fault, or the product of a fevered imagination. I still treasure thie reply as a prime example of non-customer service and relations. And still Leger send me brochures! Avoid! PS I am quite relaxed about the laws of libel, can produce a dozen witnesses to the truth because the passengers exchanged details at Dover. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
truthergw Posted 1 July , 2010 Share Posted 1 July , 2010 Interesting! ..................................... PS I am quite relaxed about the laws of libel, can produce a dozen witnesses to the truth because the passengers exchanged details at Dover. Grumpy, I think you have highlighted an important point. Any coach trip is dependent on the driver and courier. They WILL make or mar your trip. If you get a bad one, there is not much the operator can do except not use him/her again. No consolation to the unhappy tripper. In your case, I think a full or partial refund might have been expected. I have been on one coach trip which was excellent. My problems have been cancellations by the operator, at short notice. In both cases, not enough people taking that tour. In both cases my annual holiday ruined. No problems with refunds but my fortnight's hols were not renegotiable in the week or so of notice I was given. I would go on another trip if I could be certain it was going to happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevem49 Posted 1 July , 2010 Share Posted 1 July , 2010 Had to use a tour company to get to Gallipoli in 2008 (Its the war wound!) Everything was excellant including Customer Service. I then booked for the Western Front tour last year which was unfortunetely cancelled and I could not make the second date. Prompt return of money. I prefer doing the usual visits on my own but would recommend them. I do though dislike getting mail from them on a regular basis, advertising. Obviously the coach driver and courier make all the difference. Ours was an excellent Bulgarian chap. The Turkish Courier knew her job and made sure all went smoothly. I was a bit unsure of the guide though Some bloke with the initials SC S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw Posted 1 July , 2010 Share Posted 1 July , 2010 I am afraid the idea of a coach trip brings me out in a rash. As Grumpy's story demonstrates, you are at the mercy of any number of total bithering idiots with no control over your own destiny. Obnoxious. Any tour operator must have heard every sort of disaster story and staff, quite rightly to protect their sanity, will blame the punters who decided to go. I know I would! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisharley9 Posted 1 July , 2010 Share Posted 1 July , 2010 Had to use a tour company to get to Gallipoli in 2008 (Its the war wound!) Everything was excellant including Customer Service. I then booked for the Western Front tour last year which was unfortunetely cancelled and I could not make the second date. Prompt return of money. I prefer doing the usual visits on my own but would recommend them. I do though dislike getting mail from them on a regular basis, advertising. Obviously the coach driver and courier make all the difference. Ours was an excellent Bulgarian chap. The Turkish Courier knew her job and made sure all went smoothly. I was a bit unsure of the guide though Some bloke with the initials SC S Steve I went the previous year & must have the same driver & courier; they were excellent. Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Mackenzie Posted 1 July , 2010 Share Posted 1 July , 2010 I used to use Leger for battlefield trips and the guides were excellent in every case except one (he was enthusiastic but on his first trip and lacked a bit of confidence). I enjoyed all the trips and made some good friends on them but a few things started to grate:- - the 'optional' visits/lunches that bump up the price - on occasion staying in hotels that are in the middle of nowhere - the coach journey home guiding a driver from Wales around SE London (although I assume they all have sat navs now) - the journeys out were always fine I would recommend them in certain cases but I think once you have done a few battlefield trips then (for most people) you would probably want something different. Neil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterkennedy Posted 3 July , 2010 Author Share Posted 3 July , 2010 I used to use Leger for battlefield trips and the guides were excellent in every case except one (he was enthusiastic but on his first trip and lacked a bit of confidence). I enjoyed all the trips and made some good friends on them but a few things started to grate:- - the 'optional' visits/lunches that bump up the price - on occasion staying in hotels that are in the middle of nowhere - the coach journey home guiding a driver from Wales around SE London (although I assume they all have sat navs now) - the journeys out were always fine I would recommend them in certain cases but I think once you have done a few battlefield trips then (for most people) you would probably want something different. Neil Neil, They still have exactly the same problems. The drivers only seem to use their sat-navs to get a journey time (usually incorrect). Our Devon drivers couldn't find Victoria Coach Station and refused to take any advice. The tour itself was very good. Transfers badly organised. Customer care afterwards is poor. We were also told, on the tour, that the "optional" package was, in fact, compulsory. Peter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Hone Posted 3 July , 2010 Share Posted 3 July , 2010 As people say the driver and the guide/courier make all the difference. I have never used Leger (although someone connected to them has been of inestimable help in planning my school trips over the last 15 years) although in my single days I went on lots of battlefield tours with Holts', WFA, Birmingham War Research Society and HistoryAmerica. Most of them were wonderful but there were downsides with even the best run trips and its difficult to please all of the people all of the time. Military anoraks like me used to complain that there were too many shopping stops on the Holts' tours for example. On one of the otherwise superbly-run HistoryAmerica tours we broke down in the middle of the Bighorn Mountains and it was hours before we were rescued. As someone else says you are also at the mercy of your fellow passengers. Usually they were lovely, interesting people but I have been on tours with alcoholics who were only interested in going out on the lash and sometimes asked to be dropped off at bars rather than do the day's battlefield tour; bores; strange and creepy people who were difficult to shake off and cliquey insiders who claimed to be personal friends of the guides and expected preferential treatment over oi polloi. My worst experience of this kind was when I went on a grand coach tour of the American West with a British company. There were only two single men on the tour. The other one was a lovely chap-a Welsh law lecturer whom the courier insisted I had to sit next to. The only trouble was that this guy weighed 20-odd stone. He took up 1 1/2 seats and had to sit on the aisle side all the time. He took about 10 minutes to struggle out of his seat at each stop so we were always the last to get off. I tried to be patient about this but finally saw red when the rather snotty courier chided me for being slow in getting off at one particular place. Plus he rather cramped my style with the two attractive girls from West Bromwich, but that's another story... On a serious note the most horrible incident was returning with my dad on a Holts' tour in 1987. Two minutes from Victoria Coach station, after a fantastic tour, two foreign blokes looked the wrong way in the middle of a dual carriageway and stepped right in front of the coach. One was killed outright and one critically injured. Nothing the tour company or the driver could have done about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harley1962 Posted 3 July , 2010 Share Posted 3 July , 2010 My friend and i went with Leger on the All Quiet on the Western Front Tour and found it absolutely fantastic, the coaches were imacculate, the drivers were polite and friendly and the guide was excellent. As for the excursions and lunches been compulsary this is not the case as someone on our coach didn't want it though he was told it was unusual not to.The only slight problem we encountered was the feeder coach broke down on the way home and we were delayed getting home by about 2 hours but hadn't any need to complain. In fact we found what you got for the price was outstanding we couldn't have arranged to go ourselves for the same price, so much so we are doing the Walking the Ypres Salient Tour with Leger later this month. Harley1962 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterkennedy Posted 3 July , 2010 Author Share Posted 3 July , 2010 My friend and i went with Leger on the All Quiet on the Western Front Tour and found it absolutely fantastic, the coaches were imacculate, the drivers were polite and friendly and the guide was excellent. As for the excursions and lunches been compulsary this is not the case as someone on our coach didn't want it though he was told it was unusual not to.The only slight problem we encountered was the feeder coach broke down on the way home and we were delayed getting home by about 2 hours but hadn't any need to complain. In fact we found what you got for the price was outstanding we couldn't have arranged to go ourselves for the same price, so much so we are doing the Walking the Ypres Salient Tour with Leger later this month. Harley1962 We were told by the battlefield guide on our tour that the package was compulsory. Without it there would not have been time to get any food on the Ypres day, nowhere to get any food on the Somme day - and unlikely to get into the Wellington Quarries on the Arras day. Sounds pretty compulsory to me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mary Robinson Posted 6 July , 2010 Share Posted 6 July , 2010 'Optional extra' lunches were not a problem on the recent excellent 'Walking Arras' tour. At the end of each morning walk the coach was waiting to run the group back into Arras for lunch in any of the delightful cafes and restaurants around the central Places. Guides Vic and Ian and bus crew could not have been more helpful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Noble Posted 6 July , 2010 Share Posted 6 July , 2010 Just one question, and i think i have seen the adverts on my television? Who are the Tour Guides? Thought about giving my Mother a birthday treat, now, i am having second thoughts. Chris. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel Marshall Posted 6 July , 2010 Share Posted 6 July , 2010 Micheal Stedman guided my tour, Chris. I remember the coach driver was ex-RAMC and had recently left the army. The combination of guide and driver was a good one. Paul Reed was doing tours for them too, but I'm not sure if he still does. Cheers, Nigel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterkennedy Posted 7 July , 2010 Author Share Posted 7 July , 2010 (edited) Micheal Stedman guided my tour, Chris. I remember the coach driver was ex-RAMC and had recently left the army. The combination of guide and driver was a good one. Paul Reed was doing tours for them too, but I'm not sure if he still does. Cheers, Nigel Content removed Edited 7 July , 2010 by MagicRat Disrespect to another forum member Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel Marshall Posted 7 July , 2010 Share Posted 7 July , 2010 Thanks Peter. Paul was one of the guides doing the same tour as I was one with Michael Stedman....... 13 years ago! He'll be up for his gold watch soon! Cheers, Nigel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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